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16/03/2011

KBC Goldstate looks to rebound

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } KBC Goldstate, the Chinese management firm owned 51% by Goldstate Securities and 49% by KBC, has recruited Zhang Jiabin as general manager, replacing Yi Qiang, who left the firm on 24 February due to continued underperformance, Asian Investor reports. Last year, assets under management at the joint venture fell 60% to USD197m. Zhang, who began in his new role on 1 March, previously worked at Minsheng Royal FMC, which since March 2009 has launched six mutual funds (three equities funds, two fixed income funds and one balanced fund), with assets under management as of 11 March totalling about RMB3.7bn, or about USD563m.
16/03/2011

M&G signs a new distribution agreement in Italy

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } M&G Investments has signed an agreement with Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking, by which its funds will be offered for sale by the private banking network of the Italian banking group. The M&G Investments product range includes 25 funds registered in Italy. Among these are the M&G Global Basics Fund, a global equities fund managed by Graham French on the basis of major trends that might impact businesses, and the M&G Optimal Income Fund, a flexible bond fund managed by Richard Woolnough.
16/03/2011

Norwegian sovereign fund excludes a Chinese group

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Norwegian finance minister on 15 March announced that the Norwegian public pension fund has divested from the Chinese group Shanghai Industrial Holdings, due to its decision to no longer invest in tobacco producers. The fund, which had about EUR356bn in assets as of third quarter 2010, will return the American firm L-3 Communications Holdings to the list of companies in which the fund may invest, as the group has ceased to produce components for land mines. Shanghai Industrial Holdings has been excluded from the investment universe of the fund due to its 100% control of the tobacco producer Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, the finance minister says in a statement. In early 2010, Norway announced that its sovereign fund would be disengaging from tobacco producers, a decision which initially affected 17 major groups for whom this was their main activity. 50 multinational companies, including Boeing, Wal-Mart, EADS, Safran and BAE Systems, are on the Norwegian sovereign fund’s black list.
16/03/2011

Vigeo alters composition of Aspi index

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Vigeo announced on 15 March that the Aspi Committee, which undertakes the quarterly revision of the Aspi Eurozone® index, decided at its most recent session to remove Deutsche Postbank from the index. Deutsche Postbank was removed from the Euro Stoxx index on 1 February. The Spanish firm Criteria Caixacorp has been added to the Aspi index.The Aspi index includes the 120 best-rated publicly-traded businesses in the euro zone on the basis of Vigeo ratings. Changes affecting the composition and weight of shares in the index will take effect from the opening of trading on Monday, 21 March, Vigeo states.
16/03/2011

BlackRock releases two index-linked bond funds on retail market

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The index-linked bond funds Overseas Government Bond Tracker (GBP190m) and BlackRock Overseas Corporate Bond Trackerf (GBP160m) from BlackRock, which replicate the JP Morgan Global Government Bond ex UK index and the Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Corporate ex UK index, have now been added to the range of 12 British retail funds known as BlackRock Collective Investment Funds, in response to significant demand from investors. Management commission is limited to 0.52% for each product. The two funds invest physically in assets from the indices, but may also place a part of their portfolios in money market instruments or other funds. The managers may also use derivatives and futures transactions to more effectively manage the portfolio.
16/03/2011

Alliance Trust closes its private equity operation

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As part of its move to refocus on the performance of equity and bond portfolios, Alliance Trust Plc has announced that over the next few months will gradually wind down its operations in the area of private equity.Alliance Trust Equity Partners has six employees, and manages GBP110m in assets, 3.8% of total assets at the group as of the end of February.
16/03/2011

Aviva Investors brewing up a range of infrastructure funds

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Among the 218 people, including 53 managers, in the real estate division of Aviva Investors, there are two people in charge of developing a potential new line of “real asset” products, along with the parent company, Aviva, and institutional clients.Laurence Monnier and Ian Berry, fund managers, are focusing on infrastructure in order to offer clients funds that provide long-term visibility combined with low risk, with the objective of identifying profitable niches for each risk level.Three strategies are under study. One strategy works with external partners to create a product which is not a fund of funds, but which specialises on structuring and analysis to make direct investments in the area of renewable energies, focusing on operators rather than producers or providers of equipment.Meanwhile, the team is also hoping to release a fund of debt from regulated utilities or gas or electricity transport companies, which are low risk activities. For this project, specialists at Aviva Investors are cooperating with Hadrian’s Wall Capital. The two partners have signed an agreement to create a GBP1bn vehicle to finance projects in the United Kingdom and continental Europe.The third project under study is a management fund with no passive constraints, which would aim to bring in regular returns (Return Enhanced Asset Liability Management or REALM; see Newsmanagers of 10 March).
16/03/2011

Harewood and Sigma merge to create Theam

As reported in Newsmanagers in June 2010, Harewood Asset Management, founded in 2004 by the equities management teams from BNP Paribas CIB, has been merged with the Sigma team of BNP Paribas Asset Management. The new entity born of the merger, entitled Theam, now becomes a wholly-owned affiliate of BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Philippe Marchessaux, administrator and CEO of BNP Paribas IP, announced on Tuesday at a press conference. Assets under management now total nearly EUR50bn, with EUR44.3bn from Sigma and EUR4.7m from Harewood. Marchessaux hopes to double this total in the next five years, through client development in Asia and North America. Staff total 120 people, and the structure is led by Gilles Guérin, who joined on 1 July to oversee the merger from HDF Finance, where he was vice-chairman of the board.Theam’s activities are structured around four specialties. The largest in terms of assets (EUR25.1m) is management of its guaranteed and protected funds. This is followed by ETF and index-based management, including the EasyETF range, with EUR15.9bn. The third unit is alternative management, which represents EUR5.4bn. This will be undertaken directly, with discretionary quantitative strategies contained in UCITS III funds, or in open architecture, via alternative multi-management funds. Theam also has an active systematic management operation.
16/03/2011

Former Rothschild & Cie Gestion head moves to UFG-LFP

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Fabienne Pasquet has joined UFG-LFP as head of relations with banks. She was previously at Rothschild & Cie Gestion, where she served as sub-director, in charge of distribution to private banks.
16/03/2011

Dorval Finance recruits a former Oddo AM manager

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The French asset management firm Dorval Finance announced on Tuesday, 15 March, that it has added to its asset allocation management team, with the arrival of Gustavo Horenstein as manager of international flexible funds. In practice, with his double expertise in economy and allocation management, he will become co-manager of the flexible funds Dorval Flexible Monde and Dorval Flexible Emergents, and will oversee the asset allocation unit alongside Sophie Chauvellier, a statement says. Horenstein, 37, was previously an analyst and manager in the diversified management and multi-management unit at Oddo Asset Management, from 2006. He joined the firm in 2000 as an economist at Oddo Securities.
16/03/2011

CalPERS maintains 7.75% yield rate

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The California pension fund CalPERS announced on 15 March that an internal committee has decided to recommend that the fund maintain its annual rate of return at 7.75%. The board of trustees is expected to approve the recommendation on Wednesday, 16 March. In the past 20 years, CalPERS points out, the yield rate before fees and commissions averaged 7.9% per year. For the fiscal year to 30 June 2010, the yield rate was 13.3%.
16/03/2011

Vulture funds demand 0.3 times the book value of savings banks to invest

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The publication fo solvency ratios for the Spanish savings banks last week by the Bank of Spain did not help the situation: now vulture funds are demanding rebates of as much as 70%, or 0.3 times book value, to enter the capital of the banks, Cotizalia reports. Investors called in to help increase the owners’ equity ratios at the banks include Apollo, Blackstone, Cerberus, J.C. Flowers and Paulson.The demands of these investors are virtually unacceptable: they have told the central bank that they estimate the value of real estate assets held by the banks at zero.
16/03/2011

Banif transfers José María Martínez-Sanjuán to Santander AM

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The head of the external fund analysis services and hedge fund products at Banco Banif for the past four years, José María Martínez-Sanjuán, has been appointed as head of a team of six analysts in the third-party fund selection service at Santander Asset Management. Banif is the private bank of the Santander group.The appointment will allow Santander AM to standardise its manager and third-party fund selection rules across the group.
16/03/2011

RBS releases 12 ETFs in Italy

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } From 16 March, 12 new RBS MarketAccess ETFs from the Royal Bank of Scotland will be listed on the ETFPlus market from Borsa Italiana. Ten of the funds have a monthly leverage factor of two. The other two are hedged for currency risks. The new ETFs are the following: ETFs with a monthly leverage of two:LongLeveraged FTSE MIB Monthly IndexEuro Stoxx 50 Monthly Leverage IndexLevDAX x2 Monthly IndexLeveraged FTSE 100 Monthly IndexS&P GSCI Capped Component 35/20 2X Leverage Monthly Index ShortShort FTSE MIB Monthly IndexEuro Stoxx 50 Monthly Double Short IndexShortDAX x2 Monthly Index Short FTSE 100 Monthly IndexS&P GSCI Capped Component 35/20 2X Inverse Monthly Index ETFs hedged for currency risks:S&P 500 EUR Hedged Index TOPIX EUR Hedged Index
16/03/2011

Investigation into potential manipulation of the Libor

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Regulators in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom have launched an investigation to determine whether major banks have conspired to “manipulate” the Libor, the index used to calculate the cost of billions of dollars in debt, the Financial Times reports. The investigation is focusing on a sample of 16 banks which help to British bankers’ association to determine the index. UBS revealed the existence of the investigation in its annual report, the FT states.
16/03/2011

FSA sanctions a currency broker

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Financial Services Authority (FSA) on Tuesday, 15 March sentenced the currency trading firm ActivTrades Plc to pay a fine of GBP85,750, for failing to protect client assets.As client assets need to be separated from the business with “trust status,” in order to protect the capital of savings investors, the FSA found that between 14 April 2009 and 2 September 2010, ActivTrust did not ensure that the amounts in client funds, ranging from GBP3.4m to GBP23.6m, and averaging GBP12.2m, were properly isolated in case the firm were to go bankrupt.
16/03/2011

Fidelity launches a conservative income bond fund

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } James K. “Kim” Miller, who has 20 years’ seniority in portfolio management focused on capital preservation at Fidelity Investments, has been handed the management of the new Fidelity Conservative Income Bond Fund, which as its name indicates is a bond fund investing primarily (at least 80%) in money market instruments as well as high-quality debt and investments, with short durations. The benchmark index is the Barclays Capital 3-6 Month U.S. Treasury Bills Index, and the average duration to maturity for the portfolio under normal conditions will be 9 months or less. The product is available in two share classes, one for retail investors (FCONX), and one for institutional investors (FCNVX). Miller says that the ageing demographic of the population in the United States and the recent volatility of equities and bond markets have increased investors’ demand for investment products with shorter durations to maturity, which enable them to better manage their portfolios. The Fidelity Conservative Income Bond Fund is aimed at relatively conservative clients, focused on income in the 6-month to one-year time frame, who are looking for exposure to high-quality debt assets and who are prepared to accept some fluctuation in net asset value, the manager says. From 2003 to 2011, he managed the VIP Money Market Portfolio and the Fidelity Institutional Money Market Portfolio, alongside the managed Fidelity Institutional Prime Money Market Portfolio (2004-2010).
16/03/2011

Van Eck launches a Colombia ETF

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The New York-based management firm Van Eck Global on 15 March announced the launch of a new ETF dedicated to Colombian equities, Market Vectors Colombia ETF, whose acronym on NYSE Arca is COLX. The objective is to replicate the performance, before commissions and fees, of the Market Vectors Colombia Index (MVCOLXTR), developed by 4AssetManagement. The index includes not only companies domiciled and listed in Colombia, but also foreign companies which earn a majority of their revenues or own a majority of their assets in Colombia. As of 10 March, 74% of businesses in the index were Colombian. Among the 27 companies of the index, 51% are large caps, 36% are midcaps, and 13% are small caps. The fund charges 0.75%.
16/03/2011

SEC accuses two founders of Juno Mother Earth AM of looting

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 15 March, the SEC filed charges against Eugenio Verzili and Arturo Rodroguez, the founders of the hedge fund management firm Juno Mother Earth Asset Management LLC, which it accuses of diverting about USD1.8m in assets from a fund managed by the firm, the Wall Street Journal reports. The two men are also accused of artificially inflating their assets and making false declarations to the regulator, including a claim that they had USD200m in assets under management.The money funnelled form the fund is said to have been used to cover Juno’s operating expenses.The financial authorities in the Cayman Islands and Liechtenstein cooperated with the SEC in the investigation.
16/03/2011

ETFs in Europe 2011: State Street Global Advisors predicts growth for emerging markets and dividend products

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of the end of December, assets in ETFs in Europe total EUR228bn, which represents an increase of EUR56bn in one year, half of which comes from net subscriptions, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) reports in a study (see pdf below). Equities ETFs continue to dominate the market, with 70% of assets.In 2010, subscribers concentrated on emerging markets equities, commodities, US, German and Japanese equities, as well as European government bonds, and ETFs which provide exposure to variations on the VIX. However, euro zone equities saw net outflows of EUR1.1bn, and money market ETFs in euros saw net redemoptions of over EUR1.5bn.The products which attracted the largest inflows were the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF and the db x-trackers MSCI emerging market TRN ETF, with net subscriptions of EUR2.01bn and EUR1.28bn, respectively. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN attrracted over EUR1.6bn. For products based on the Dax, the iShares and db x-trackers products attracted EUR1.12bn and EUR800m, respectively. This tends to prove that investors prefer physical replication products, such as the iShares product, to synthetic replication products like the db x-trackers fund, SSgA says.For 2011, specialists at SSgA predict continued internationalisation of portfolios, with an increase in the proportion invested in uncorrelated asset classes such as equities and emerging markets bonds. In addition, as investors are frustrated with the low returns on bonds, this year may bring an increase in subscriptions to ETFs which focus on high dividend equities.
16/03/2011

La Fed persiste et signe

Même si elle se réjouit d’une reprise plus vigoureuse, la Réserve fédérale américaine a décidé hier de maintenir ses taux et son plan de rachat d’obligations du Trésor
16/03/2011

Des pratiques peu louables chez Calpers

Un rapport du cabinet d’avocats de Washington Steptoe & Johnson, fruit d’une enquête de dix-sept mois, révèle de surprenantes pratiques au sein du fonds de pension du secteur public californien. Les gérants sélectionnés pour la gestion des fonds du plus important fonds de pension public américain auraient versé environ 180 millions de dollars pour s’assurer ce rôle au cours des dix dernières années. L’ancien directeur général, Frederico Buenrostro, serait intervenu régulièrement, à l’encontre des règles, pour faire pression sur les membres des comités de sélection en faveur de certaines sociétés de gestion. Le quotidien souligne qu’une enquête fédérale est en cours sur les «agents de placement».
16/03/2011

Lone Star voit le bout du tunnel

Le média en ligne avance que le régulateur sud-coréen devrait dévoiler aujourd’hui son approbation finale de l’acquisition d’une participation de contrôle de Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) par Lone Star. Un engagement dont le fonds texan cherche à se défaire depuis des années, bloqué par la justice. La vente devrait avoir lieu au bénéfice de Hana Financial pour 4,1 milliards de dollars.
16/03/2011

La Chine a du mal à contrôler l’inflation

La Chine devrait avoir du mal à ramener la hausse des prix à la consommation au rythme de 4% cette année a indiqué le journal qui cite des propos de Sun Gongsheng, le directeur de la banque centrale de la province chinoise de Nanjing. En 2011, l’inflation devrait être plus élevée qu’en 2010, alors que les banques sont fortement exposées à une chute du marché immobilier estime Sun Gongsheng.
16/03/2011

Le fonds de pension chinois ne connaît pas la crise

Le fonds de pension national chinois aurait enregistré une hausse de ses actifs de 10,32% en 2010 à quelque 856,8 milliards de yuans, soit environ 93 milliards d’euros, selon le quotidien qui cite des propos du président du fonds, Dai Xianglong. Le fonds compte accroître ses investissements en actions cette année, ainsi que ses investissements à l’étranger.

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